Outgoing RBI governor blames govt over tanking economy

, Aug 30: Outgoing governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

on Thursday took a dig at the UPA government for the

's slide, citing domestic reasons. He also alleged that a loose fiscal policy taken by the government over the last three-four years have crippled the RBI's monetary policy.

Subbarao slammed the government in his final public address made on the occasion of the 10th Nani Palkivala memorial lecture, saying the latter influenced the central bank's autonomy through the Financial Stability and Development Council.

The outgoing governor also took a dig at Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who had expressed his disappointment with the RBI last October for not backing his call for rate cut. On Tuesday, the finance minister put the onus on the functioning of the finance ministry in the 2009-11 period while explaining how domestic factors caused the current woes. Chidambaram was preceded by Pranab Mukherjee, who is currently the President of India.

Subbarao also rued that as the governor of the RBI, he preferred to take 'baby steps' while hiking rates in 2009. He said had his bank acted more decisively then, inflation could have been brought under control much sooner.

The Indian rupee gained 225 paise to reach 66.55 against the US dollar on Thursday.

OneIndia News